1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to width control devices of armrests for vehicles and, more particularly, to a width control device of an armrest for a vehicle which controls the width of the armrest, which is provided in a seat of the vehicle.
2. Background Art
Generally, armrests, provided on consoles in vehicles or provided on rear seats, are an accessory in the vehicle that allows passengers who sit in the corresponding seats to place their arms thereon, thus providing the passenger with a comfortable ride.
Armrests that are provided on the consoles are stationary types, and are thus unmovable. However, as shown in FIG. 1, an armrest 7, that is provided on a rear seat 5, is freely rotatable. Therefore, when the armrest 7 is not in use, it is placed in an upright state, and, when use of the armrest 7 is desired, it is rotated downwards and maintained in a horizontal state.
Such a conventional armrest for rear seats has been developed so that the height is suitably adjustable so as to avoid an inconvenience that may be caused when the height of the seated passenger is considerably large or small compared to an armrest.
Generally armrests are designed preferably such that only the height is adjustable in response to the height of the passenger seated in the rear seat, and further without taking into account whether the user is thin or fat.
Accordingly, the conventional armrest, provided in the rear seat, is adjustable only in height but has no means for adjusting the width.
As such, the conventional armrest for rear seats has a fixed width and does not take various body types of passengers, that is, whether the passengers are thin or fat, into account. Therefore, there is a problem in that it may be inconvenient for a passenger to place his/her arm on the armrest.
The above information disclosed in this the Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.